This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City had the 9th best economic performance during the recession and the recovery. Home prices dropped 19 percent over that same period. And the number of jobs increased 3.1 percent.
Those numbers come from newly released data by the Brookings Institute that looks at the 100 largest U.S. metro areas. The data is plotted in several interactive maps and offers a comprehensive look at how American cities fared during dark economic days.
For Utah, the picture that emerges is a fairly positive one. Salt Lake City and Provo, in 7th place, were among the cities with the best overall economic performance, beating harder-hit major metros like Los Angeles and New York. Ogden is ranked 15th for overall economic performance.
Utah's cities also excelled at job creation. Though every city lost jobs during the recession and gained them during the recovery, only about half saw an overall increase. Of Utah's metro centers, Provo saw the largest growth at 5.7 percent, followed by Salt Lake City at 3.1 percent and Ogden at 1.9 percent.
Utah also has lower-than-average unemployment numbers.
Figures for housing look similar to those for jobs; prices in every city fell during the recession and increased during the recovery. No city has seen a full housing recovery, the data shows, but Utah's numbers are firmly in the middle of the pack of American cities when it comes to regaining value.
The maps also offer information about cities' economic output, as well as data on housing, employment and jobs last year.
—Jim Dalrymple II
Twitter: @jimmycdii